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Rationale, aims, and objectives: Clinical and research evidence suggests that family functioning is an important variable in shaping psychological well-being, despite being often overlooked in the prevailing approaches to mental health. The aim of the present study is to examine the associations between psychological distress and family functioning in a sample of patients accessing a public mental health service.Method: CORE-OM and FACES IV questionnaires were administered to 112 patients, and all the correlations between the scales and subscales were calculated.Descriptive statistics concerning family typologies and satisfaction with family communication or relationships were also evaluated. Results:The results showed significant associations between family functioning and psychological well-being. Positive aspects of family functioning, such as balanced cohesion and flexibility, were associated with lower distress, while negative aspects such as disengagement were associated with poorer mental health. According to the Circumplex model, most of the families were described as balanced in their functioning; however, the communication and family satisfaction scores revealed that many patients had concerns about their family relationships.Conclusions: This study confirms that family functioning is significantly associated with psychological distress, also in the absence of clear and conspicuous signs of structural imbalances within family relationships.

Viqualine dihydrochloride is a new molecule, which possesses strong serotonin reuptake inhibition properties and, at the same time, diazepam-like actions, such as [³H]-diazepam-binding inhibition and antipunishment effect. The drug was administered double-blindly to 10 patients suffering from major depression resistant to previous treatments with tricyclics. The comparison group (10 patients) received placebo. Lorazepam (10 mg/day) was also given to both groups. Viqualine proved to be significantly superior to placebo in the 4th week of treatment on all the three rating scales which were used. Tolerability of viqualine was good both objectively and on subjective grounds.

22 patients with panic disorder (PD) were compared with 42 cases suffering from agoraphobia with panic attacks for a number of variables. The two groups did not differ for age, sex ratio, age of onset, social class, severity of nonsituational anxiety and personality profiles. On the other hand agoraphobics showed lower education and worse social adaptation. A higher prevalence of traumatic life events was also observed for agoraphobics compared with subjects suffering from PD.